WEDNESDAY U.S. DELEGATION IN INDIA TO MEET DALAI LAMA, DISCUSS TIBET BILL 19 JUNE, 2024 The delegation led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul reached Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamsala on Tuesday epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard U.S. BILL X.com/TheMornStandard TREATS GANSU, QINGHAI, SICHUAN AND YUNNAN PROVINCES AS PART OF TIBET JOE BIDEN EASES VISA RULES FOR CITIZENSHIP In the election year, the President announced on Tuesday a new potential citizenship path for immigrants married to US nationals PAGE 9 BIDEN TO SIGN LEGISLATION SOON: MCCAUL A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS NEW DELHI J8.00 UNBEARABLE HEAT PAGES 12 The delegation includes ex-US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congress members Mariannette Miller, Gregory Meeks, Nicole Malliotakis, Jim McGovern and Ami Bera. They will meet the Dalai Lama on Wednesday. McCaul said US President Joe Biden will sign the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act, also known as Resolve Tibet Act SC sets highest bar on negligence in NEET-UG exam Women held captive, sexually abused in Bihar; kingpin arrested R A M A S H A N K A R @ Patna A shocking case of sexual harassment has come to light in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, where several young women allegedly faced exploitation while being held captive under the false promise of job opportunities. Based on the statement of a survivor, an FIR had been registered at Ahiyapur police station in Muzaffarpur district, implicating nine people. The main accused was arrested in UP’s Gorakhpur on Tuesday . Confirming the arrest, Muzaffarpur SP Awadhesh Dixit said Tilak Pratap Singh was held from Gorakhpur and added that the allegations against him were under investigation. “Tilak Kumar has been arrested from Gorakhpur. The survivor alleged that Kumar first approached her on social media in June 2022 and asked her to visit Muzaffarpur to get a good job. She also alleged that the accused assaulted her for several months,” Dixit said. A photograph of Singh with the survivor went viral on social media, with another image showing him brandishing a pistol. The woman had escaped from the captivity of the accused and took shelter in a Muzaffarpur-based court, as police initially refused to accept her complaint. However, a case was finally registered following the court’s intervention. The woman recounted that Singh and his aides purportedly provided training on making fraudulent calls. The survivor also alleged that the accused had lured as many as 200–250 young women into the racket by promising them jobs. Asks NTA to take action if there is 0.001% chance of malpractice in holding the test S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Scarves to the rescue of a family out in the blazing sun in New Delhi on Tuesday. The city has been as the city is facing severe heatwave conditions | PARVEEN NEGI Boiling tap water, power cuts add to the capital misery J I T E N D R A C H O U B E Y @ New Delhi “WE are more worried about the boiling tap water than the blistering heat,” says Sunita, 28, a migrant from Maharashtra, living in Delhi’s Sundar Nagari. “Our sleep-deprived women in the neighbourhood wake up around 5 am to start household chores and bathe early so as to avoid the boiling tap water during daytime,” she adds. Heatwave conditions during both day and night have made life miserable for those who don’t have cooling equipment at home. Excess heat has also made street dogs more irritable, possibly doubling dog bite cases. Delhi’s maximum temperature on Monday was 6-8°C above normal and so was the minimum temperature — over CHART TOPPERS ON 17 JUNE, THE FOLLOWING 4 STATIONS REPORTED THEIR HIGHEST-EVER MINIMUM TEMPERATURES Alwar: 37°C (Highest since 1969) Lakhimpur Khiri: 33°C (since 1969) Shahjahanpur: 33°C (since 1977) Varanasi: 33.6°C (since 1969) Highest mimimum temp of this summer on Tuesday Delhi recorded its highest minimum temperature of this summer season at 33.8 degrees Celsius in the early hours of Tuesday, which implies that Monday night was the warmest of the season. The capital city is on a red alert, which, according to the IMD’s colour codes, demands urgent action. 6°C above normal. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) catagorises the conditions as warm night when the departure of the minimum temperature is 4.5°C-6.4°C above normal. Severe warm nights are when the departure is over 6.4°C. Normally, the difference between maximum and minimum in summer in the North is 10-15°C. But the current difference is just around 6-8°C. “It shows the magnitude of the heatwave conditions,” said Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, IMD chief. Warm night to severe warm night conditions have been observed in parts of Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi and UP. War m night conditions are prevalant in isolated pockets of Rajasthan and Bihar. Then there is the problem of frequent power cuts and water scarcity in Delhi-NCR colonies. “For a week in May, our transformer burst and deprived us of electricity. Now, regular water supply is a challenge,” said Mihir Chandra, a resident of a posh colony in Gurgaon, who organised multiple protest at the Gurgaon Municipal Corporation. “I found many similarprotests in Noida, Ghaziabad, and other places. I am worried about our older people and children coping with the heat,” he added. Even ACs struggle to function in the heat. “My mechanic arranged a cooler to keep my AC functional,” said a senior doctor living in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar. He works at the Government Civil Hospital in Gurgaon. “Heat-related illness cases have gone up by 25% in all OPDs. Dog bite cases have also jumped in the past one month,” he said on the condition of anonymity . MORE REPORTS ON PAGE 4 Power demand reaches all-time high 8647 7438 7695 6753 6314 7409 7016 6526 6261 5846 5925 5653 5642 5028 4720 HOW IT HAS GROWN OVER THE YEARS 2024 (June 18) 2023 (Aug 22) 2022 (June 29) 2021 (June 29) 2020 (June 29) 2019 (July 2) 2018 (July 10) 2017 (June 6) 2016 (July 1) 2015(June 19) 2014 (July 15) 2013 (June 6) 2012 (July 5) 2011 (August 2) 2010 (July 1) Supply hit, water crisis likely in RML and Lady Hardinge The water crisis is deepening in the Lutyens’ zone and is soon likely to hit hospitals like Ram Manohar Lohia and Lady Hardinge Medical College. Satish Upadhyay, NDMC Vice-Chairman, said they are deploying tankers to mitigate the impact on residents. He said the three DJB water treatment plants that supply water to NDMC are running short by up to 50 per cent. P3 EXPRESS READ Ashwani Kumar new MCD commissioner The MHA has appointed senior IAS officer Ashwani Kumar as the new MCD commissioner. He is currently serving as the Delhi divisional commissioner and the additional chief secretary (home) in the Delhi government. P3 Er Rashid bail plea to be heard on June 22 A city court on Tuesday fixed for hearing on June 22 arguments on a plea filed by Sheikh Abdul Rashid, known as Engineer Rashid, held in a 2016 J&K terror funding case, seeking interim bail to take oath as an MP. P4 The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday said that a NEET aspirant who had alleged that the NTA failed to declare her result and that her OMR answersheet was found torn had submitted forged documents. The court allowed the NTA to take legal action in the matter they can argue their case on July 8, the next date of hearing. There have also been allegations of question paper leaks in states like Bihar, which led to protests in several cities and petitions in various courts. Advocate Kanu Agrawal, appearing for the Union, said “let no opinion be formed till we file a counter.” Agarwal added that the NTA’s recent decision to revoke the grace marks to 1,563 students indicated it was responsive to the concerns of candidates. That decision was taken after an expert committee found flaws in the modus of awarding grace marks. The NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. Around 24 lakh candidates took the exam on May 5 in 4,750 centres across the country . RBI MULLS BETTER INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR GREEN DEPOSITS A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi BREACHING all its previous records, Delhi’s peak power demand touched an alltime high of 8,647 MW on Tuesday as the , people continued to grapple with crippling heatwave, according to the State Load Despatch Center (SLDC) data. The city’s peak power has crossed the 8,000MW-mark on eight occasions since May 22. The discoms said that they successfully met the power demands in their respective areas. Before 2024, the previous high of 7,695 MW was recorded on June 29, 2022, which slipped marginally to 7,438 MW last year. Tuesday was the 30th straight day when the demand crossed 7,000 MW Barring last . year, when the demand peaked in August, it usually peaks at the end of June and early July The sharp rise in demand can . be attributed to extremely hot weather conditions that led residents to use more air conditioners and coolers, leading to increased electricity consumption. THE Supreme Court on Tuesday pressed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to proactively take remedial action if there was even 0.001% chance of negligence in conducting the NEET-UG examination. “As an agency, you must act fair. If there is a mistake, say yes, this is a mistake. If there is 0.001% negligence on the part of anyone, it should be thoroughly dealt with... We need timely action from you,” a two-judge vacation bench of justices Vikram Nath and S V N Bhatti said. Observing that students have to labour hard while preparing for these examinations, the court said the litigation pertaining to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) -2024 must not be treated as adversarial. “We all know the labour which the children undergo, especially in preparing for these exams,” the bench said, adding, “Imagine a person who has played fraud on the system becomes a doctor, he is more deleterious to the society .” The bench was hearing two petitions against awarding grace marks given to students in the examination held on May 5 besides other malpractices. It sought a detailed response from the NTA and the Centre and told the petitioners Aspirant in trouble over fake papers Patra said in his speech. RBI had issued the framework for green deposits in April 2023, with the broad objective to develop a green finance ecosystem. Under the framework, regulated entities can offer green deposits to customers and boost the sustainability agenda, address ‘greenwashing’ (false claims on sustainability), and help increase the flow of funds to green projects. Deposit insurance is mandatory for all the banks in India, including foreign banks operating in the country However, in. surance coverage is a sticky issue. The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation of India, a subsidiary of the RBI, covers deposits only up to `5 lakh. It steps in, in the event of a bank collapse. B E N K O C H U V E E D A N @ Mumbai The way temperatures have been breaking records in Delhi over the past one-to-oneand-half months, the main solution is to increase the green cover Gopal Rai, Enviroment Minister 8,000 MW demand Since May 22, peak power demand has crossed 8,000 MW eight times, discom officials said, adding around 2,100 MW of green power has played a key role WITH climate change emerging as an overarching risk to the global economy as well as financial systems, the Reserve Bank of India is exploring adequate insurance coverage for green deposits, deputy governor Michael Patra said. “We are exploring appropriate coverage for green deposits, climate-risk based differential premiums and ex-ante funding needs for climate sustainability,” Patra told the 79th executive committee meeting of the International Association of Deposit Insurers in Rome over the weekend. While Patra did not elaborate on RBI’s plans, the move is expected to bring more funds to environmentfriendly projects. Patra urged deposit insurers to brace for more complex challenges amidst the heightened uncertainty especially from the impact of climate change, which threatens to disrupt the global economy . “New challenges arising from climate changes will inevitably require effective coordination and information sharing between domestic insurers and other national safety net participants as well as with those in other jurisdictions,” BIG SHOT King Kohli reclaims throne of India’s most valued celebrity brand U M A K A N N A N @ Bengaluru WITH a brand value of $227.9 million in 2023, cricketer Virat Kohli surpassed Bollywood star Ranveer Singh to claim the No 1 spot as India’s most valued celebrity He was No 2 with $176.9 . million in 2022. That’s a cool 30% jump in one year. In 2017, with a brand value of $144 million, the star cricketer had sur passed Bollywood heart-throb Shah Rukh Khan for the first time and stood No 1 that year. Since then, Kohli’s brand value soared 58% to touch the latest figure. The brand value of actor Ranveer Singh shot up 383% in the past seven years. He was at No 5 with $42 million in 2017. In 2023, his brand value stood at $203.1 million. According to Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2023, released by global consulting firm Kroll, the overall brand value of the top 25 celebrities in 2023 is estimated at $1.9 billion, an increase of 15.5% from the previous year. Aviral Jain, MD, Valuation Advisory Services, Kroll, told this paper: “2023 marked King Kohli reclaiming the throne of being the most valued celebrity brand in India backed by his stellar and record breaking onfield performances throughout the year. He marshals a vast army of 375 million social media followers and his brand repertoire has doubled in the last five years.” Actors Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Alia Bhatt are at No 3, 4 and 5 with a brand value of $120.7 million, $111.7 million and $101.1 million, respectively . The report says the cumula- tive number of product brand endorsements by the top 20 celebrities increased to 484 in 2023, a jump of 14.2% from 424 product brands in 2022. The list also featured Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Apart from investing in startups, these celebs have launched their own brands. They are dabbling in new areas like the food business, with ventures like Kohli-led One8 Commune’s multi-city premium restaurants, and Genelia D’Souza and Riteish Deshmukh’s Imagine Meats India. Most valued celebs (Source: Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2023) $227.9 MILLION $203.1 MILLION 1 VIRAT KOHLI 2 RANVEER SINGH $120.7 $111.7 $101.1 MILLION MILLION MILLION SHAH RUKH KHAN AKSHAY KUMAR ALIA BHATT 3 4 5
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